This invention relates to the field of electrical, data and telecommunication service boxes, and in particular service boxes which may be flush mounted within the surface of a board room table.
With the need for rapid access to up-to-date information, business executives are utilising personal computers and telecommunication devices in boardrooms for access to and retrieval of information as well as for video conferencing. At the present time personal computers, cellular telephones or the like when brought into a board room for use during a meeting are usually battery powered since there is insufficient telecommunication or electrical connections in most boardrooms to accommodate individual connections for each person in attendance. If connections of this type are available they are usually limited in number and are of the conventional wall mounted type which require extension cords or computer cables of some length so as to typically interfere with passage around the boardroom table.
It is desirable, therefore, to have outlets for telecommunications, data and electricity accessible to each person seated around the board room table. Consequently, it is an object of the present invention to provide electrical, data and telecommunication service stations which are mounted through or under a hole in the table, and which are accessible through an opening in the station which is flush with the upper surface of the table.
The telecommunication, data and electrical station of the present invention includes a rigid container, mountable within an aperture formed through an upper, horizontal work surface of a table, such as a boardroom table. The container may be a rectangular box having surrounding an upper perimeter edge thereof, a container support such as a lip projecting outwardly therefrom. The upper surface of the lip may, in one embodiment, lie in a first plane parallel to an upper surface of the table when the container is mounted in the table through the aperture in the table. The lip may be a circumferential lip extending contiguously around the upper perimeter edge.
The container will typically include perimeter walls secured to and depending from the container support, for example in planes at right angles to the first plane, and a bottom wall connected to a lower edge of the perimeter walls spaced from the container support. The bottom wall has a conduit aperture therein to provide insertion access for data, including audio and video, electrical and telecommunication conduit. The container support and the perimeter walls defining an upper access aperture for access into the container. A service outlet support is mounted or mountable into the container for mounting thereon data, electrical and telecommunication service outlets in co-operation with the data, electrical and telecommunication conduit. The service outlet support has an upper mounting face recessed below the first plane when the service outlet support is mounted into the container.
Preferably, inside the telecommunication, data, and electrical station the upper mounting face lies in a plane which is canted with respect to the first plane so that the service outlets are generally in a line of sight through the upper access with a user sitting at the table when the station is mounted in the table. Insertion and removal of electrical plugs and telecommunication jacks is thereby facilitated.
In the preferred embodiment the telecommunication, data and electrical station further includes a selectively positionable lid which pivots between a closed position closing or covering the upper access aperture and an open position wherein the lid is pivoted completely into the container. In the closed position the lid lies within the upper access aperture flush and coplanar with the first container support. In the open position the lid allows unobstructed access through the upper access aperture to the upper mounting face when the service outlet support is mounted in the container.
In the structure of one preferred embodiment the service outlet support has depending therefrom support arms which are spaced inwardly from the perimeter walls, so that the perimeter walls and the support arms define a lid receiving cavity therebetween. The lid may then be pivoted about an axis of rotation, the axis of rotation generally parallel to the first plane, so that in the open position the lid is fully retracted into the lid receiving cavity so as to be stored below the first plane.
The upper mounting face may have an inwardly facing perimeter portion joined at the medial point thereof by a transverse strip thereby defining a pair of apertures under which conventional electrical and telecommunication service outlets are mounted. Depending from the transverse strip may be a divider wall dividing the container into separate electrical and telecommunication compartments.
Advantageously, securing means are provided to secure the station within the aperture formed in the table. In one embodiment the securing means are selectively positionable in vertical relation to the underside of the table and mountable on the perimeter walls. In particular, the securing means may be rigid flanges having threaded apertures for the threaded engagement therethrough of threaded bolts at right angles to the first plane so as to compress the table between an upper end of the bolt and the container support at right angles to the first plane.
The lid may in one embodiment have downwardly and outwardly projecting arms for pivotal connection generally at terminal ends of the arms to opposite walls of the perimeter walls. The lid may then be pivoted about its axis of rotation, which is advantageously parallel to and spaced from the first plane, so as to be rotatable between the open and closed positions. Again, in the open position the lid is fully rotated below the first plane into the container. Rotational stops may be mounted to an inside face of each of the opposite perimeter walls, positioned adjacent a rotation path of the lid, for contact with the lid when the lid is in the closed position.